Richard A. Fleming
Birder, writer, artist, sound-recordist. Author of Walking to Guantánamo. Following mostly traveling birders and posting mostly bird travels.
- Paradise Tanager, La Isla Escondida, Putumayo, for #birdsseenin2026 #birding
- This is Gould’s Jewelfront, an absolutely spectacular hummingbird I was lucky enough to see yesterday on my birthday at the remote but wonderful La Isla Escondida, in Putumayo, Colombia. #birdsseenin2026 #birding
- Streak-throated Bush-tyrant, giving an exemplary view of its streaky throat this morning at Montserrate, 1000 meters above the plains, and the city, of Bogotá, for #birdsseenin2026 #birding
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- This is the rig that most birders I know use, those who can afford it. Minus the extender.
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- Yes, that’s the demographic
- Rough-legged #Hawk at Staten Island’s Brookfield Park. There is a major influx of these handsome raptors to the region this winter—usually seeing one requires a long, dawn, drive to the “black dirt” region of Orange County, NY. #birdsseenin2026
- This is the underside of the rear end of a razorbill (that’s a #bird), very often all you see when you try to photograph one. These petite auks seem to spend 90% of their time underwater. Spot one, and if you’re fast you can get your camera up just in time for them to disappear! #birdsseenin2026
- A phenomenally beautiful immature-plumaged Bonaparte’s Gull dancing over the water just off one of the Coney Island jetties a few days ago. These tiny, elegant gulls are a highlight of the winter #birding season in #Brooklyn #birdsseenin2026
- Yesterday while blundering around in an old hard-drive I found a cache of #bird photos I had totally forgotten about! I’ve become borderline obsessed with documenting all my #eBird sightings, so I immediately added this Common Green Magpie to my Malaysian list for #birdsseenin2011 !!! #birding
- By the way they are definitely not common!
- Spectacular first winter Iceland Gull on Staten Island this afternoon, my first for Richmond County. Found a few days ago by my friend Anthony C, but not there yesterday when I looked for it. Today, success! #birds #birdsseenin2026 And to think some people just call them all “seagulls.”
- The legendary boardwalk and pier at Coney Island offer some of Brooklyn’s best seabird-watching in winter. Yesterday Common Eider, Black and White-winged scoters and Common Loon were all working the water directly off the pier. #birding #birdsseenin2026
- Do you find there's an ideal time of day and/or tide to visit? It's a bit of a haul from me, and I feel like I don't get great luck there.
- These are from the day before yesterday but a friend went yesterday and these were all still in close. I think higher side of the incoming tide is maybe better but honestly I don’t pay attention to the tide chart when going there.
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- This is why the television/internet/social/advertising etc. slowly degrades language over time.
- This photo from New York harbor yesterday is of both species of scaup, our confusing duo of Aythya ducks. These are mostly Greaters, but can you find the (minimum) 3 Lesser Scaups here? #birdsseenin2026 #birding
- The photos aren't ready for Nat Geo, but give me time. Here are a few for the USA #birdsseenin2026 list--I see some heavy early contributions from the UK, and we are already badly behind! #birds Ring-necked Duck (with Ruddy); Northern Pintail; Tree Sparrow (with Song); Black Scoter (with Brant).
- Another early get for Brooklyn #birdsseenin2026 is this American Pipit, generally quite common in season but easily overlooked and only infrequently found walking around on the ground. Usually we detect flyovers, calling, so I was glad to see this one strutting in the Plumb Beach marsh. #birding
- Just say “no” to gunboat diplomacy.
- I have to admit I was really hoping 2026 would bring about regime change—it’s just that I didn’t have #Venezuela in mind!
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- Have to ask @tonyrinaud.bsky.social what the rules are but should be able to add White Ibis for the USA 2026 as well, based on your video!
- Lark Sparrow, never common or even uncommon in New York City, is a great way to start the #brooklynbirding year! #birdsseenin2026 #birding This individual seems to be trying to make it through the winter - although it hadn’t been seen since 11/23 I’m certain it’s the same #bird reported then!
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- Totally. “It’s not our fault we’re bad people, God wants it that way.”
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- This is just a suggestion, not an identification, and I am not familiar with the species, but I would carefully consider whether this might be a female or immature Pine Bunting.
- Female /Immature Yellowhammer is also possible and definitely more likely assuming you are in Sweden. I don’t see any yellow at all on your bird but that could be the photos making it difficult to see. Separating these two species in these types of plumages can be subtle and difficult.
- Where is this?
- I really liked that his entire discourse was a prayer; he made zero distinction between what divine intervention might accomplish and what good governance should.
- Another 2025 #birding highlight, and another owl, was this Cape Eagle Owl, large, spectacular, and very scarce. Gratitude to Garret Skead for hipping me to the location, on the Western Cape, South Africa, where a pair emerged in the purple gloom of dusk. #birdsseenin2025
- We were sitting on the patio at our hotel in Costa Rica when I heard what sounded like someone shaking a huge piece of sheet metal out back. That could only be this #birdsseenin2025. Photo courtesy of Sandra Schmid, because mine were just dark blobs. #birding
- Actually, if you were on the lower east slope of the Andes in South America you would likely be hearing Band-bellied Owl, another one of the three species of the genus Pulsatrix. I highly recommend listening to the surreal sounds made by all three!
- It’s not much of a photo, but this Chestnut Piculet was high on my list of most-wanted #birds on a brief “long weekend” trip to Cartagena in March. #birdsseenin2025 This tiny, stunning cinnamon woodpecker was definitely among my favs of the year.
- Thanks to @lothianrecorder.bsky.social for picking out the White-winged Scoter at Ferny Ness. Extremely distant in low light and on the edge of ID range with my optics. Photo shows general view, not the WwS, probably #UKBirding
- Good to see you Simon; yes, clear enough through the scope, but challenging for record shots, I think fourth blob from left in first here and central in second - refound in central group just after you left (or two?) and GND swam in from NE... app.bto.org/birdtrack/pu...
- At least in the US the middle bird with the white eye-makeup in the second shot would be rock solid documentation of a White-winged.
- Next up in my end of year favorite #birdsseenin2025 in no particular quantity or order is the Chestnut-banded Plover, endemic to Africa and one of the birds I only managed to see once in #southafrica last August. A specialist of salt-pans. #birding
- It’s that time year again so I’m posting an arbitrary number of my most exciting bird sightings in no particular order. First up is South Africa’s national bird, the Blue Crane. #birding #birdsseenin2025 in the Western Cape.
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- Have you ever had it again since?
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- That is a very long swim by that little guy!
- Somehow #Duolingo has figured out that the main reason I’m studying #Portuguese is so I can go #birding in #Brazil. “I come to see the birds and the trees”
- The “last” of the #Thanksgiving turkey, 2 gallons of home-crafted stock, pressure-canned. I would have it all in quarts, but the rest of my jars are fully loaded with last August’s tomatoes. Quality soups in our future! #canning
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- What bird are you not looking for at the moment?
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- 💋
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- You spelled “Amazing guess!” wrong 🤣
- I think you could get to the Falklands more easily: I’ll go with remote south pacific atoll, or somewhere in eastern Indonesia?
- Greater white-fronted goose at Hamden Pumping Station in #Hunterdon county, NJ. As you can see, this one is vocalizing! I was able to record it, and it’s now the 803rd species in #eBird for which I have contributed audio! #birding #birdsseenin2025
- I just the read the ABA RBA note by @n8swick.bsky.social on the Yellow-headed Caracara in Delaware. This bird was first observed sitting on the Dole plant at the Wilmington waterfront. This is the #1 east coast port of entry for bananas—thousands of containers-worth, most shipped direct from 👉🏻
- Central and South American ports in areas if YH Caracara abundance. To me this bird is a slam-dunk example of a ship assisted vagrant, not an example of increasing northward incursions by the species. I was frankly surprised Swick didn’t even raise that possibility.
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- These guys seem unlikely to have read widely but I have to wonder if they came across a copy somewhere of The White King of La Gonave by the US Marine, Faustin Wirkus, who “ruled” the island during the US invasion of Haiti 100 years ago.
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- Fabulous bird!
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- Oh, you mean “consultants.” Yes, that I would believe.
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- Cuomo had volunteers?
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- It’s a very slippery slope
